WORTHINGTON — Residents will decide at Annual Town Meeting on Saturday if they want a full-time police chief and whether to decrease the street frontage required to build a house, along with voting on a bevy of routine budgetary items.

The meeting will take place outside the R.H. Conwell School starting at 9:30 a.m.

The biggest monetary item on the 36-article Town Meeting warrant is the fiscal year 2022 Worthington School District budget, contained in Article 3. The proposed budget is $1,211,756, up from $1,166,275 for the current year. The total request consists of $953,574 for the elementary school and $258,182 for the secondary school budget.

Article 15 proposes funding for a full-time police chief. The police chief’s salary for fiscal year 2021 is $36,400, and if approved, the salary would be increased to $72,800. Robert Reinke is the current chief, and his position is currently funded as part time.

Another line item would add $32,112 to police department wages, which would allow for the hiring of a full-time police officer.

“That’s a substantial increase between the two of those, and a big change,” said Select Board Chairman Charley Rose.

Rose said that Article 15 will be voted on a line-by-line basis, and while the Select Board and Finance Committee have recommended funding the full-time chief position, both bodies chose to stay neutral on the question of additional funding for a full-time officer.

Currently, no full-time officers are employed in Worthington.

There are also new capital purchases on the warrant: $60,000 for the purchase of a Diamond heavy duty wheel loader boom mower; $135,350 for a 2021 CAT 930M loader; and $119,450 for a 310SL HL backhoe.

Article 35 is a citizens petition that would drop the street frontage requirement for housing from 400 to 280 feet in the town’s zoning bylaws.

Rose said 400 feet is the steepest requirement he knows of in the area. He noted that the Select Board sponsored a poll on changing the frontage, which showed no consensus on changing the zoning, although a majority did back some form of change.

“We were going to study it,” he said.

The article states that Worthington has the highest median home value of surrounding towns.

“Decreased lot frontage will also provide lower cost building lots, making it more feasible to construct starter homes for young families in the community,” reads part of the article.

In an April presentation before the Planning Board, Tina McCarthy, author of the article, noted that with a frontage requirement of 280 feet, Worthington would still have the highest frontage requirement of surrounding towns, and the continued rural character of surrounding towns supports the contention that changing the frontage requirement wouldn’t change Worthington’s. McCarthy also shared her estimate that 61 developed lots would be newly available for subdivision under the change. In an interview, she clarified that this was her maximum estimate for developed lots.

McCarthy said that being unable to build a house with her partner, Alex Feinstein, on a 10-acre lot with 350 feet of frontage owned by Feinstein’s parents, because of the existing requirement, spurred the petition’s submission.

McCarthy said she and her partner are trying to change the zoning instead of going for a variance because she believes the law should be changed.

“This is just there so the town can pick and choose who gets to develop,” she said. “That is just not fair.”

But she also said she’s not optimistic that it will pass at Town Meeting.

“People just don’t want to change it,” she said, saying she’s heard a fear of development if the frontage requirement is changed.

The full warrant can be found at https://bit.ly/2Sa9eyp.